February

Paolo
Rossi scored his first hat trick for Italy since Brazil in the 1982 World Cup,
as Italy defeated Mexico (5-0).

West
Germany defeated Bulgaria with Stielike scoring twice. Hamburg’s Dietmar Jakobs
rejected his call up as he needed to concentrate on his club. Hans-Peter
Briegel and Wolfgang Dremmler were dropped for this match.

Two
weeks later they defeated Belgium (1-0). This was Belgium's first home loss
since December 1977 against Italy.

This
match would be remembered for different reasons.

On
the days prior to the Belgium match, West Germany’s Manfred Kaltz indicated
that he might be interested in a national team return. However, Jupp Derwall
must make the first move to settle their differences.

In
addition, there was a statement by Horst Koppel (one of the national managers),
whereby he proposed that Harald Schumacher might have to be axed from the team,
due to the whole controversy surrounding the Patrick Battiston incident at the
World Cup. Schumacher demanded a one on one meeting with DfB President Hermann
Neuberger to discuss this situation.

For
the Germans, this turned out to be the last ever International match of the
controversial Bernd Schuster.

For
the Belgians, on the lead-up to the match the Standard-Waterschei scandal came
to light. Walter Meeuws played his last match for Belgium.

The
new Ballon d’Or Michel Platini scored twice as France defeated England (2-0) in
a high profile friendly in Paris. England were debuting their new all white
Umbro jerseys, making a break from the colorful Admiral jerseys of the previous
decade.